Some drinkers are born to suffer

The reason some drinkers can handle sake and others cannot, suffering dreadful hangovers or losing control, is being studied by a British project.

East Asians are known to be less able to cope with alcohol than Caucasians because they lack a vital enzyme to break down alcohol.

Studies of the metabolic states of different populations is starting to show that the causes are more complex and may depend on factors ranging from trace fermentation products to gut bugs.

Initial findings are published in the journal Analyst by a team at Imperial College London led by Prof Jeremy Nicholson. "We started to find weird ethanol metabolites [alcohol breakdown products] in the urine of some Japanese and Chinese people sampled as part of a epidemiological study primarily designed to study high blood pressure," he said.

The observations "were unexpected". He added that the studies indicate that there may be "major differences" between individuals and races in their ability to break down alcohol because of genetic differences in detoxifying enzymes.